Agra, Sep 25 (PTI) World Rivers Day was today celebrated
here with activists demanding release of water in Yamuna which
was dying a "slow death".

Held at the Etmauddaula View Point Park on the Yamuna
bank, tourism-industry members threatened to go on indefinite
hunger strike from November 1, if water was not released in
the river.

They said a dry Yamuna was a serious threat to the Taj
Mahal whose foundations required constant moisture.

Surendra Sharma, founder president of the Agra Hotels and
Restaurants Association said, "There was no water in the
river. Only toxic waste and pollutants from upstream cities,
industrial effluents were flowing contaminating the dwindling
water resources".

The activists also put up a photo exhibition over
pollution in the water body at the Goverdhan Hotel to
highlight the plight of the river by human waste and
industrial pollutants.

At evening, they gathered at the Yamuna Arti Sthal to draw
attention to rivers in India facing increasing threats
associated with climate change, pollution and haphazard
industrial growth.

Jugal Kishore Shrotriya, a temple priest and a young green
activist, said the Yamuna, for all practical purposes, was
"dead in Agra".

"Only garbage, carcasses and sewer flow. The aquatic life
has been decimated. So many plans and schemes to save the
river have gone down the drain," he said.

Activists said the free flow of the river has been
obstructed by a series of barrages upstream that hold up all
the water.

"What reaches Agra is just waste and sewage. The Yamuna
Action Plans have made no discernible improvements in water
quality. The flow is inadequate. The sewage treatment plants
either do not work or are short of resources," Shravan Kumar
Singh of the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society said.